Green Walls.

5-17-18 SHORT HILLS: It has continued to rain with at least another inch accumulation. There was an intense storm with high wind, hail, rain and lightning two days ago. Two trees on the street fell, one was a huge oak that blocked the road for a while. We lost a moderate sized branch from a tulip tree and lots of small branches.

By the way, my definition of a moderate branch is one that I can lift, big branches have to be cut up to move, and several small branches can be picked up in a bunch. I needed three hours to pick up all the debris.

The yard is soggy, the grass is long and wet, soaked bushes are bent over and dripping. Everything is green and growing except the three butterfly bushes, the milkweeds, and two crepe myrtles, all presumed dead, but I’m waiting for a few weeks before replacing them with something else. Road traffic and neighbors have disappeared behind green walls.

New blooms: wild strawberry, hawthorn.


Hawthorne in the center flanked by red maple, hemlock, viburnum, on the left and yew, arborvitae, southern magnolia, and barberry on the right.

Hawthorne flowers.

bleeding heart and small columbine on the lower right.

Spirea, chestnut and lamium in bloom with currant finishing and lilac starting, house wrens are back in residence.

Double-fine viburnum looks a bit like a dogwood. Also leucothoe, mock orange, burning bush, red-twig dogwood.